Regular readers may have noticed that we were never smitten with the idea of high definition dvd discs like HD DVD and Bluray. After three years of grumbling, we’re still wondering why, in the era of ‘the cloud’ and of micro read-write drives there’s really a need to evolve the DVD. Why not let it run its course until it’s no longer necessary - like the CD or the tape before that?
The news is, that after a reidiculous amount of money spent on developing and marketing these two formats, HD DVD has died. After three years, Toshiba have said that by March it will stop making players for its HD DVD format. USA Today reports:
Even without these problems, retailers might find it hard to persuade consumers to buy Blu-ray. Toshiba said it might try to offer high-def videos without discs, for example on flash memory and wireless technologies.
Meanwhile, “A lot of consumers are still satisfied with their current DVD player and plan to continue using it until it breaks,” says Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for The NPD Group. That’s one reason Blu-ray backers and retailers are weighing deals to help HD DVD buyers switch.
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Much agreed… HD-DVD and Bluray are the laser discs of the decade.
Evolving video on demand services (Apple TV, Netflix’s “Watch Instantly”, and the next stage of DirecTV) are already on their way to making any physical product obsolete. I personally haven’t bought a DVD in well over a year and don’t see any reason to do so.
February 21st, 2008 at 4:52 pm
I’m not sure if physical media formats will completely die until all 6 billion people on the world have access to the digital distribution and consumption methods, and disk space drops to a few pennies per gigabyte.
There’s also something inherently portable and transferable about physical media - I can loan you a real book, but not an e-book or an audiobook.
February 23rd, 2008 at 4:07 pm